SB 

110 

,W3 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BUREAD OF PLANT INDUSTRY— BULLETIN NO, 215. 

E. T. GALLOW.'.y, C'liiif of Vtireau. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE CENTRAL PART OF 
THE SEMIARID PORTION OF 
THE GREAT PLAINS. 



J. A. WARREN, 
Assistant Agriculturist, Office of Farm Management. 



Issued July 19, 1911. 




WASHINGTON : 
GOVERNMENT -PRINTING OFFICE. 
1911. 



r. 



Qass 6 Su o 
Rnnk A A /3 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY— BULLETIN NO. 215. 

B. T. GALLOWAY, Chief of Bureau. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE CENTRAL PART OF 
THE SEMIARID PORTION OF 
THE GREAT PLAINS. 



BY 

J. A. WARREN, 
Assistant Agriculturist, Office of Farm Management. 



Issued July 19, 1911. 




WASHINGTON : 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1911. 




BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 



Chief of Bureau, Bexehj^y T. Galloway. 
Assistant Chief of Bureau, William A. Taylor. 
Editor, J. E. Rockwell. 
Chief Clerk, James E. Jones. 



Office of Farm Management, 
scientiftc staff. 
W. J. Spillman, Agriculturist in Charge. 
D. A. Brodie, David Griffiths, and C. B. Smith, Agriculturists. 
LeA-i Chubbuck, A. D. McNair, G. E. Monroe, and Harry Thompson, Experts. 

G. A. Bilhngs, M. C. Burritt J. S. Gates, J. S. Cotton, H. R. Cox, M. A. Crosby, D. H. Doane, G. Dodge, 
J. A. Drake, J. W. Froley, C. L. Goodrich, Byron Hunter, H. B. McClure, J. C. McDowell, II. A. Miller, 
W. A. Peck, A. G. Smith, E. H. Thomson, and B. Youngblood, Assistant Agriculturists. 
M. C. Bugby, E. L. Hayes, A. B. Ross, E. A. Stanford, and G. J. Street, Special Agents. 
J. H. Arnold, C. M. Bennett, and H. H. Mowry, Assistants. 
215 
2 




LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

Bureau of Plant Industry, 

Office of the Chief, 
Washington, D. C, March 20, 1911. 

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a nianuscript entitled 
''Agriculture in the Central Part of the Semiarid Portion of the 
Great Plains," and to reconmaend that it be published as Bulletin 
No. 215 of the series of this Bureau. Tliis nianuscript was prepared 
by Dr. J. A. Warren, Assistant Agriculturist, under the direction of 
the Agriculturist in Charge of the Office of Farm Management, of 
this Bureau, who for a number of years past has been studying the 
management of ''dry farms" and the problems confronting the 
farmers of the region, besides having had some previous practical 
experience there. The author wishes to acknowledge his indebted- 
ness to Mr. J. E. Payne, superintendent of the experiment station 
at Akron, Colo. ; Prof. W. P. Snyder, superintendent, and Mr. W. W. 
Burr, assistant, of the substation at North Platte, Nebr., each of whom 
has read the manuscript and offered valuable suggestions. 

For some time prospective settlers have made a strong demand 
upon the Department for rehable information concerning this region. 
There has also been a strong demand from persons already located 
there for suggestions for the better management of their lands. This 
manuscript is intended to fill the former want and in a measure also 
the latter. 

Respectfully, 

Wm. a. Taylor, 
Acting Chief of Bureau. 

Hon. James Wilson, 

Secretary of Agriculture. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introduction 7 

Natural factors of plant growth in the Great Plains fixed 8 

Economic conditions in the Great Plains changed 9 

Extent of the semiarid region 10 

Climate 11 

Precipitation , 11 

Evaporation 13 

Winds 15 

Effect of wind on agriculture 16 

Light 17 

Irrigation water 17 

Soils... 18 

History of the settlement of the region 20 

Conditions that have brought about resettlement 21 

Farm practices in the region 22 

The agricultural future of the region 24 

Future prices of products 25 

Improved methods of tillage 25 

Introduction and development of drought-resistant crops 31 

Promising systems of farm management 34 

Opportunity for farmers in the Great Plains 39 

Index 41 

215 5 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page. 

Fig. 1. Map of the central part of the semiarid portion of the Great Plains, 

showing average annual precipitation 12 

2. A field of wheat on summer-tilled land, Phillips County, Colo., 1909. . 27 

3. A summer-tilled field where winter wheat will be grown, adjacent to 

the field shown in figure 2 29 

4. A field summer-tilled by listing instead of plowing, Rawlins County, 

Kans., 1909 30 

215 
6 



B. P. I.-«62. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE CENTRAL PART OF THE 
SEMIARID PORTION OF THE GREAT PLAINS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Since the earliest period of settlement in this country the surplus 
population has migrated westward. This movement will doubtless 
continue till all the varied resources of the West are as fully utilized 
as their respective values warrant — till the return for efforts expended 
and the advantages to be obtamed are balanced with those of other 
parts of the country. The relative profitableness and agreeableness 
of agricultural enterprises in different sections are by no means stable 
quantities. For this reason there must always be more or less shifting 
of population, but this shifting will naturally grow less as the whole 
country becomes more fully occupied and its possibilities more fully 
developed. 

Agriculture, like every other human activity, is not dependent 
upon natural surroundings alone, but is changed and swayed by 
every change in economic conditions. Factors in agriculture may be 
divided into two classes, natural and artificial. Over most natural 
forces man has little or no control. Artificial factors are produced 
and controlled by man, though not necessarily by the individual. 
Natural conditions are the results of forces so superhuman that man 
may not even hope to change or modify them. All he may hope to 
do is to fit himself to meet those conditions and prosper under them 
by learning to counteract the adverse effects, to supplement defi- 
ciencies, and to make the most of every favor nature grants. 

Climate and soil are the total natural agricultural resources of any 
country. Favorable conditions with respect to both are absolutely 
necessary to successful crop production. A fertile soil is essential, 
yet an uifertile soil may be built up and improved; but a fertile soil 
is absolutely useless without a favorable climate. '^Wliat a nation 
shall raise depends upon the climate of the region in which that nation 
happens to be located, and what is produced influences the laws, 
habits, and customs of the people. North America owes more to its 
variety of climate than to its variety of soil. A temperate climate, 
92597°— Bui. 215—11 2 7 



8 



AGEICULTUEE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



with its recurring periods of heat and cold, is responsible for our being 
the busy, hustling nation that we are."^ 

Settlers in new countries, and especially in the dr}" regions, have 
often been misled by giving too little attention to climatic conditions. 
They have found a fertile, easily tilled soil, and without regard to 
climate have assumed that good crops must be the reward of 
cultivation. 

NATURAL FACTORS OF PLANT GROWTH IN THE GREAT PLAINS 

FIXED. 

Of the climatic factors, rainfall and evaporation are the most impor- 
tant in the semiarid region, because the most faulty. The saying that 
''rainfall follows the plow" has, m its effect, been one of the worst 
deceptions ever foisted upon a credulous public. This idea has been 
the undoing of more plains settlers than has drought itself. If the 
people had realized that the dry countr}^ would always be a dr}^ 
country mam^ who have settled in the semiarid regions would never 
have gone there, and those who did go, understanding the hard 
conditions, might have risen to the emergency and long ago have met 
the necessity, as did the settlers in Utah and Washington, instead of 
waiting in the vain hope that Nature would take pity on them and 
reward their puny efforts by an increase in precipitation. Space does 
not permit a discussion here of the fixedness of climate, but all students 
of meteorology now agree that the climate is unchangeable, at least 
within the limits of a single generation.^ There are fluctuations from 
year to year and more or less cyclical changes which give periods of 
dry years followed by periods of wet 3^ears, but the average of a long 
period of years is practically stable. These fluctuations, although 
very irregular, lie between fairly well-defined limits as regards total 
variation. 

The main factors affecting evaporation from an open water surface are 
the relative humidity of the atmosphere, or the proportion of moisture 
in the air compared to what it can hold, the wind velocity, the tem- 
perature of the air and of the water at the surface, and the air pressure. 
Evaporation from the soil, however, is affected not only by these 
factors, but also by the character and condition of the soil and by 
tlie plant growth thereon. Soil conditions and plant covering are 
largely under the farmer's control. 

The soil in its native state is, like the climate, unchangeable so far 
as the ordinary limits of time are concerned, but under cultivation 
very important temporary changes may be brought about. ^ 

1 Ball, Frank Morris, of the department of geology. University of Minnesota, in Monthly Weather 
Review, May, 19f ,0. 

2 For a discussion of this subject the reader is referred to the Yearbook of the XI. S. Dept. of Agriculture 
for 1908, p. 289; Bulletin D, U. S. Weather Bureau; and Monthly Weather Review, May, 190C. 

3 See Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils, pp. 61, 71, and 76. 

215 



ECONOMIC CONDITIONS CHANGED. 



9 



Climate/ soil, and topography ^ are the factors determining the 
native vegetation. As these factors are all fixed and unchangeable to 
any appreciable extent, the native vegetation is also fixed and un- 
changeable so far as one lifetime is concerned, except for the limited 
effects of overgrazing and the effect of increased or dinunished burn- 
ing by fire. 

Yet along mth the idea of change of climate goes the belief that 
the plant growth of the native prairies of Nebraska and Kansas has 
changed decidedly as successful agriculture has pushed its way 
westward. This notion prevails especially with reference to the long 
grasses, many believing that even eastern Nebraska and eastern 
Kansas were covered with buffalo and grama grasses 40 years ago, 
and that settlement has caused the bluestem to drive the short 
grasses westward 200 miles. This opinion has, however, no founda- 
tion in fact. Wlien the Plains were first settled there were no elements 
in the flora that had not assumed their proper places. Neither the 
long grasses nor the short grasses were newcomers. Both had fought 
the battle for supremacy and each held its chosen ground — the ground 
which it still holds, except as overgrazing or burning has disturbed 
the equilibrium. If the stock is removed, the floral covering even on 
the overgrazed land again assumes its original character, showing 
conclusively that the character of the plant growth is a fixed resultant 
of natural causes and is not determined or changed by any obscure 
and intangible force following in the wake of civilization. 

The appearance of the prairies changes noticeably in wet seasons. 
The wheat-grass and other tall grasses and weeds are much more 
in evidence, the buffalo and grama grasses grow much taller, and 
annual plants are more conspicuous; but the real and permanent 
characters of the flora are unchanged by even half a dozen wet years. 
The relative sizes of plants, but not the kinds of perennials, change 
with the season. 

The same native flora which existed on the Plains when they were 
first settled occupies them to-day; the same climatic conditions which 
caused the ruin of the early settlers must be met by the settlers of 
to-day; the same soil conditions which the homesteader then found 
confront the - 'dry farmer" of the present; the same grass mixture 
which pastured the first homeseeker's stock and in some cases fur- 
nished hay for the winter is still there. As man has not changed the 
climate, neither has he changed the plant growth on the prairies. 

ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN THE GREAT PLAINS CHANGED. 

What has just been stated is not that the farmer on the semiarid 
Plains to-day has the same combination of conditions to meet that 
he had 25 years ago when the region was first invaded. It has 

1 See Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils, pp. 31 and 35. 2 idem, p. 30. 

215 



10 



AGKICULTUKE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 



been pointed out that agricultural factors are of two classes, natural 
and artificial, and one of these sets of factors is as important as the 
other. It is just as essential to have a market as to have a crop. 
Wliile the forces of the first group are fijced, those of the second are 
constantly changing. Whatever differences there may be between 
the conditions that surround the settler on the dry lands to-day and 
those that faced the settler of a generation ago on the same land, 
these differences are not in soil, climate, or native vegetation. They 
are economic and industrial differences — differences in the macliinery 
available, the methods of cultivation practiced, the varieties of crops 
at hand, and the prices of products. The changes in these respects 
are great, so great that the total combination of all conditions make, 
as it were, almost another country. The improvement in machinery 
is so great that Prof. Snyder, of the substation at North Platte, Nebr., 
has said, ''Take away the disk, the press drill, and the corn macliinery 
and western Nebraska would still be a place for the cattleman." 
A parallel statement with regard to the crops that have been intro- 
duced during the last 15 years may be made, but great as is the 
effect of these changes the advance in prices of products is of still 
greater importance. 

Where success has been attained it has in almost every instance been 
due to more than normally favorable seasons combined with high 
prices. There does not appear to have been any great and general 
revolution in methods of cultivation except what has been brought 
about by the introduction of new machinery. In spite of the fact 
that many periodicals have published glowing accounts of a wonder- 
ful revolution in methods that has turned the dry region into the most 
prosperous of farms, there is little foundation for such stories. Other- 
wise than to use new machinery, the average farmer of the dry country 
has improved his practices but little. His increased prosperity is due 
more to unusually favorable seasons and to high prices of grain and 
stock than to better methods of cultivation or management. 

Nevertheless, a very few exceptional farmej 3, unusually progressive 
men, who study their work and the conditions to be met, have changed 
their methods radically and have met with better success. 

EXTENT OF THE SEMIARID REGION. 

Some writers and experimenters consider the semiarid region as 
including all the Plains as far east as the ninety-eighth meridian, and 
thus include a large area of land receiving an average of as much as 
27 or 28 inches of rainfah annually, which has supported a prosperous 
agricultural population for a generation, and in many portions of 
which farms are readily salable at $70 to $100 an acre. Some of the 
greatest winter wheat, corn, and hog producing counties in Kansas 

215 



PKECIPITATION. 



11 



and Nebraska lie west of this line. To include this territory seems 
manifestly unjust and misleading, if it does not make the term semi- 
arid" actually meaningless. It is impossible to fix a positive and 
definite line on the one side, of which we shall say the country is humid 
and on the other semiarid, or, as some prefer to say, ^^subhumid," for 
there is no sudden dropping off in precipitation, but a fairly uniform 
decrease from east to west across the two States. As generally used, 
the term refers to a country receiving an average of between 10 and 
20 inches of melted snow and rain annually, but in determining aridity 
or humidity evaporation is of equal importance with precipitation. 
In southern Texas much more than 20 inches of precipitation may 
be required to make a humid country, but 20 inches of rainfall in the 
Red River region of North Dakota makes a distinctly humid climate. 
With reference to Kansas and Nebraska the writer prefers to consider 
the western limit of 20 inches average annual precipitation as the 
eastern limit of the semiarid region, although in southern Kansas this 
limit may be too far west and in some other places too far east. So 
far as the records for Kansas and Nebraska now show, this line in 
most ^places lies 20 to 30 miles west of the one hundredth meridian. 

The accompanying map (fig. 1) shows the region to which this dis- 
cussion is intended to apply and the average annual precipitation as 
shown by records of the Weather Bureau. 

CLIMATE. , 

The climate of the Great Plains region has been thoroughly dis- 
cussed by several able writers and for that reason it seems unnecessary 
to give more than a brief summary here. It is a region peculiarly 
subject to high winds, driving storms, and sudden changes in tempera- 
ture. The light is intense and the air usually very dry. At least in 
a large proportion of it hail is of frequent occurrence and does much 
damage to crops. The native flora and even the soiP attest the gen- 
eral dryness. To the careful student of nature these tell a story of 
perennial dryness over which the myth of changing climate could have 
no appeal. 

PRECIPITATION. 

All plants for proper development require a reasonable supply of 
plant food in available form, favorable temperature, an adequate 
supply of moisture, and an abundance of sunshine. Given a fertile 
soil, the yield of the crop depends upon the relative distribution of 
heat, moisture, and light throughout the season. But a chain is no 
stronger than its weakest link. Given favorable conditions with 
respect to all the foregoing except one, that one becomes the limiting 
factor of success — the all-important question. In most of the Great 

1 Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils. 

215 



12 



AGEICULTUEE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS, 



fT. LARAMJ£^ 




iPUJ^LO 



102^ lor u 

Fig. 1.— Map of the central part of the semiarid portion of the Great Plains, showing the average annual 
precipitation. In the region shown in the unshaded part of the map there is less than IG inches of 
precipitation during the year; the lightest shading shows from If) to 18 inches: the medium shading, 
from 18 to 20 inches; the heaviest shading, more than 20 inches. 
215 



EVAPORATION. 



13 



Plains region all these conditions but one, moisture, are favorable for 
crop production. Thus it is that the amount and distribution of 
rainfall become the question preeminent, and moisture conservation 
becomes the vital problem to all farmers. 

As has been said, there is a fairly uniform decrease in precipitation 
from east to west across the Plains to some distance into Colorado 
and to about the Wyoming boundary line. (See map, fig. 1.) This 
decrease is 1 inch to about 17 miles along the south line of Kansas, 
1 inch to about 21 miles along the north line, and 1 inch to about 
40 miles along the north line of Nebraska from the Missouri River 
west. Over most of the region 70 per cent or more of the precipita- 
tion falls during the growing season. This, it is often argued, makes 
a much smaller annual precipitation necessary than if much of it 
came during the winter. The truth of this supposition may at first 
seem self-evident, but there is grave doubt whether our small-grain 
crops may not with proper tillage succeed better with a small amount 
of precipitation which comes in the winter than with the same 
amount of rain coming in the summer. At least, the regions which 
are producing satisfactory crops on the least rainfall are regions of 
winter rain, and there summer rain (after July) is considered a 
misfortune, except when falling on fallow land.^ 

It seems, however, fairly well established that late-maturing crops, 
such as corn, must have considerable rain during the middle and 
latter part of the growing season.^ 

The rainfall of the region is very uneven in distribution, a large 
part of it falling in the form of local showers which cover but limited 
areas and are often torrential in character. This makes the rainfall 
extremely variable, both as to annual precipitation and distribution 
through the season. Instead of calling the region ^'semiarid" it would 
be more properly described as varying from year to year between 
arid and humid. This variability is the most serious feature of the 
climate. If dry seasons came with any regularity the settler could 
be prepared for them, but coming as they do with no regularity and 
without warning they are the constant dread and often the ruin of 
the homesteader. If the precipitation were fairly uniform and favor- 
ably distributed the conditions might be easily met, but this varia- 
bility has always been the limiting factor of success. It is this, 
more than the scarcity of moisture, that must be overcome. 

EVAPORATION. 

From an agricultural standpoint evaporation is of equal impor- 
tance with precipitation, although few people appreciate this fact. 
It is this factor which determines the amount of water needed to 

1 Thatcher, R. W., Director of the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station, in address at Corn 
Exposition, Omaha, 1909. 

2 For a further discussion of this subject, see Bulletin 85,* U. S. Weather Bureau; Yearbook, U. S. 
Dept. of Agriculture for 1903, p. 215; Annual Report, Nebraska State Board of Agriculture, 1909, p. 312. 

215 



14 AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 

produce a crop. The water actually contained in the crop at any 
time is so small as not to be worth considering. It is the water that 
passes through the plants into the air and the amount lost from the 
soil which determine the amount necessary for the welfare of the 
crop. The amount of water within reach of the roots of plants is of 
no greater importance than the rate at which it escapes through the 
leaves and stems. The water used by the plants is that which passes 
through them and the small amount retained in their bodies. The 
balance of the precipitation in this region is nearly all lost by evapo- 
ration directly from the surface of the soil, very little escaping 
through seepage. 

The amount of water used by plants is far from uniform for all 
parts of the region, being greatest in the warmest and windiest parts 
and growing less as temperature and wind velocity decrease. For 
this reason an inch of water in the Panhandle of Texas is not com- 
parable with an inch of water in North Dakota.^ The amount of 
water lost through plants in the semiarid region, or, in other words, 
the amount of water necessary to produce a crop if all loss from the 
soil could be prevented, is not very well known. It is, however, 
known to be far in excess of that required in more humid sections. 
Experimenters in several States have determined the amount of water 
lost by various plants in their particular localities and in publishing 
the results have usually stated that they applied to their particular 
conditions only; but, in spite of this, results obtained in Wisconsin 
have frequently been quoted to show what a small quantity of water 
was needed on the dry Plains. Records indicate that in the drier 
portion of the Plains the air is about twice as dry as at Madison, 
Wis. Obviousl}^, results in Wisconsin have no relation to Plains con- 
ditions. At the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station it has been 
found that about 50 tons of water passed through wheat plants for 
every bushel of grain produced, or the equivalent of 12 inches of 
water actually passed through the plants to produce 27 bushels of 
wheat to the acre. To this must be added the water lost from the 
soil by evaporation and by seepage in order to determine what was 
required to produce the crop. 

The loss of water is controlled mainly by the same factors as the 
evaporation from an open water surface, namely, the dryness of the 
air, the temperature of the evaporating surface, the wind velocity, 
and the lightness of the air. From these facts it is plain that the 
amount of water necessary for a crop is very variable and is not 
likely to be the same in the s'ame field in any two consecutive seasons. 
It must vary from season to season approximately as the dryness of 
the air, the wind velocity, the temperature of the air, the soil, and 
the plants vary. 



215 



1 Bulletin 188, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



WINDS. 15 

The evaporation of water from an open water surface is not an 
exact measure of the demands made by the atmosphere upon plants ; 
yet it is a relative measure and the best we have at present. Experi- 
ments have shown that the loss of w^ater by plants varies. In south_ 
eastern Colorado the evaporation from an open water surface is 
about 50 inches during the growing season, and diminishes to the 
northward, on account of the decrease in temperature, to about 35 
inches in northwestern Nebraska. 

The demands for water during critical periods, which may be only 
a few hours in duration, are often as important as those for the sea- 
son; in fact, during dry periods the greater part of the injury to 
crops is often done within a few^ extremely trying hours. These de- 
mands are frequently excessive and often beyond belief. At Lin- 
coln, Nebr., August 26, 1909, Profs. Montgomery and Kiesselbach 
found that a single corn plant standing in a field of corn lost 9J 
pounds of water in eight and a half hours. August 26 was not 
nearly so hard a day on the corn as was August 23, when the tem- 
perature was higher, the wind more than doubled, and the relative 
humidity only about two-thirds as high. Judging from the record 
of August 26, the same plant must have lost about 15 pounds in the 
same length of time on August 23. Even August 23 was not nearly so 
trying a da}" as some that have occurred in southeastern Nebraska 
during very dry seasons. What the demands upon plants in still 
drier regions may be at times we can only imagine. In a large part 
of the region the demands are much greater than at Lincoln. 

WINDS. 

The semiarid portion of the Great Plains is the windiest extensive 
area in the United States. There are not many records that fairly 
represent the ^\ind sweep on the smooth prairies. The following 
data published by the Weather Bureau are the best available on the 
subject and are included here as being at least suggestive: 



Average wind velocities on the semiarid plains. 



station. 


March. 


April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


August. 


Septem- 
ber. 


Amarillo. Tex 


19.8 


20.2 


18.9 


18.8 


16. 1 


13.4 


16.9 


Dodge Citv, Kans 


12.8 


14.2 


13.7 


13.8 


11.8 


10.9 


11.9 


North Platte, Nebr 


10.8 


12.6 


11.8 


10.9 


9.0 


8.6 


9.3 


Valentine, Nebr 


11.6 


13.4 


12.2 


12.2 


10.3 


9.5 


10.9 


Peoria, 111. (3 years) 


11.0 


11.0 


9.7 


8.6 


7.1 


6.7 


7.9 



Dodge City, Kans., North Platte, Nebr., and Valentine, Nebr., are 
near the eastern limit of the semiarid area, and are in valleys w^hich 
apparently must protect them from the full force of the wind, or at 
92597°— Bui. 215—11 3 



16 



AGEICULTUEE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



least prevent as high wind velocities as prevail on the level prairies. 
Amarillo, Tex., is on a level plain and receives the full sweep of the 
wind. The conditions at this station may be more representative 
of the open country under discussion than those at the other stations, 
yet it seems probable that if there were records on the open prairies 
farther north they would lie between the figures given. For com- 
parison, the record at Peoria, 111., is also given. 

EFFECT OF WIND ON AGRICULTURE. 

High wind velocity has an important bearing on agriculture. It 
has a positive value as a source of power for pumping water and is 
occasionally utilized to run feed grinders and other small machinery. 
It also enables the farmer to cure feed quickly and in excellent condi- 
tion, but the beneficial results fade into insignificance when com- 
pared with the damage done. On many days it is a great hindrance 
to labor, especially if hay or grain is to be handled; it blows the soil 
badly, sometimes removing several inches from bare fields in a short 
time. This drifting absolutely prohibits summer tillage on light 
soils; the blowing sand cuts off crops and the wind does much dam- 
age by whipping and splitting the leaves. All of these facts men- 
tioned, however, are of small importance when compared with the 
effect of wind on the evaporation of water from the soil and from 
plants. 

The significance of high wind velocity becomes more apparent 
when its effect upon the rate of evaporation and the consequent dry- 
ing effect upon soil arid plants are considered. Everyone knows that 
the air takes up water much more rapidly on a windy day than on 
a calm one, but to get any definite relation between evaporation on a 
still day and on a windy one is very difficult. Prof. Thomas Russell's 
experiments with instruments constructed for the purpose gave the 
following results for evaporation from a water surface: ^ 

With the wind at 5 miles an hour evaporation is 2.2 times as rapid as during a calm. 
With the wind at 10 miles an hour evaporation is 3.2 times as rapid as during a calm. 
With the wind at 15 miles an hour evaporation is 4.9 times as rapid as during a calm. 
With the wind at 20 miles an hour evaporation is 5.9 times as rapid as during a calm. 
With the wind at 25 miles an hour evaporation is 6.1 times as rapid as during a calm. 
With the wind at 30 miles an hour evaporation is 6.3 times as rapid as during a calm. 

While the wind can not affect the loss of water from the soil to any 
great depth at anything like the ratios specified, there is no question 
that the amount of water required for the best development of plants 
increases materially as wind velocity increases. 

1 Report of the Chief Signal OfTicer, War Department, 1888, p. 176; also Monthly Weather Review, U. S, 
Signal Service, 1888, p. 235. 
215 



IKEIGATION WATER. 



17 



LIGHT. 

The whole semiarid country is a region of intense sunlight. On 
account of the clearness of the air, the small amount of cloud, and 
the rarity of the air caused by the high altitude, the sun's rays lose 
much less energy before striking the earth. Although this is a sub- 
ject not usually considered it is undoubtedly an important one — 
how important no one knows. It is kno\\'n that plants use more 
water when exposed to strong light. With fairly favorable condi- 
tions of heat and moisture the quality and yield of grain depend 
largely on the intensity and duration of light. It seems compara- 
tively certain that this is one of the main factors responsible for the 
uniformly high quality of grain produced in the semiarid region and 
the large yields obtained whenever an adequate supply of moisture 
is available.^ 

IRRIGATION WATER.2 

The extent of territory in this region that can ever be irrigated is, 
indeed, an extremely small proportion of the whole. At best, the 
water hi the streams is sufficient for only small patches in comparison 
to the whole, or narrow strips along* the streams. This water is 
supplied niauily by the precipitation in the mountains. The amount 
of water lost by surface run-off in the semiarid region itself is com- 
paratively small and is commonly much exaggerated. It would in 
reality make only a thui covering over the entire surface. We see 
water flo\\Tng hi a draw and think of its volume, but do not stop to 
think how far apart the watercourses are, and from what a large 
area the little stream collected the water. Of course, there is con- 
siderable movement of water from higher to lower ground, especially 
during driving storms, so that much more water goes into the ground 
on one part of a field than on another. Some water also accumulates 
in low places, where it remains tih evaporated, being thus lost to 
-agriculture. OccasionaUy too, considerable water finds its way into 
the streams. A considerable but unknoA\Ti quantity is also lost by 
seepage. 

The Kepublican Kiver, which ri^es in the plains of Colorado and 
hsLS most of its drainage basin in the semiarid region, though its 
mouth is in a region of much heavier rainfall, has an average annual 
discharge of only about three-fifths of an inch for its entire basin. 
In other words, if all the water discharged by tins stream during a 
year were spread out on the land from which it was collected there 
would be but tliree-fifths of an hich over the entire area. It must 

1 For a further discussion of this subject, see Bulletin 36, U. S. Weather Bureau. 

2 It would be unnecessary to mention this subject here except to warn persons from accepting statements 
concerning future irrigation on land where there is no hope for irrigation. 

215 



18 



AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 



be remembered that this includes not only the storm water but the 
seepage water also, the only considerable loss not included being the 
evaporation from the surface of the stream itself. 

The North Platte River and its tributaries gather most of their 
water from mountain areas where the precipitation is generally 
greater than on the prairies, and in all of which the evaporation is 
much less and the run-off much greater; yet the amount of water in 
these streams is sufhcient to cover the area from which it has been 
collected to the depth of only 1.5 inches in a year.^ 

SOILS. 

The soils are, in a measure at least, characteristic of the climate. 
They are strictly dry-climate soils. Little difference in texture 
between soil and subsoil is found. There is nearly everywhere a 
high percentage of soluble salts, and in many of the valleys an excess 
of alkali. This is due to the fact that there is not sufficient rain to 
leach out the salts. The soil is not often wet to any great depth, 
and over much of the region there is no seepage whatever, all the 
water which gets into the soil returning to the air. There is then no 
means by which these soluble mineral compounds can get away. In 
nearly all the region a slightly whitish zone is observed at from 1 to 
3 feet below the surface. This is due to the accumulation of salts 
which have been carried down by the rain water and left behind when 
the water was evaporated to the air. This zone marks the limit 
below which the soil is not often wet.^ 

The soils are mostly fine sandy loams or silt loams, containing little 
clay. These soils are locally called ''hard land." There are lim- 
ited areas of dark-colored tillable sands, which, under ordinary till- 
age withstand drought better than any other soils of the region. 
Such soils are found north of Haxtum, Colo., north of Oshkosh, 
Nebr., and in other places. There are large areas of sand hills on 
which agriculture is out of the question, but within these areas are 
numerous small valleys where the soil contains some humus and is 
quite productive. In many of the valleys water is within, reach of 
the plant roots, and here large ci:ops of native hay and some culti- 
vated crops are produced. In many places on the Plains there is 
more or less gravel, and considerable areas of adobe are found. The 
adobe is heavy and hard to work, but most of the soils are porous 
and easy to till when sufficiently moist. 

On account of the dryness of the climate there is usually a large 
store of mineral plant food in the soil, but for the same reason it has 

1 See Bulletin 205, OlTice of Experiment Stations, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, entitled "Irrigation in Wyo- 
ming," by C. T. Johnson, State Engineer. 

2 This does not refer to the deposits of soft, impure lime rock locally called "magnesia and native lime." 

215 



SOILS. 



19 



been impossible for any large amount of organic matter to accumu- 
late. The aridity of the climate has not permitted a heavy growth 
of vegetation and has hastened the burning out of the decomposed 
matter. No large quantity of organic matter is usually present, 
much less than is found in soils of humid sections.^ There is, how- 
ever, in all the better soils of the region, where the rainfall is 15 inches 
or more, sufficient humus and nitrogen to produce a number of large 
crops. As yet the question of fertility has usually not entered into 
the problem of crop production in the semiarid region. The amount 
of moisture has not been sufficient to enable the farmers to use the 
fertility present. Lack of moisture has been the one problem. The 
writer does not say that if general farming becomes successful and 
well established fertility will not very soon become a problem or that 
it might not now be a problem if an abundance of water were avail- 
able, but that in the past lack of moisture has been the one limiting 
factor. Under the heavy cropping of irrigation farming, fertility has 
in many sections become a problem within a very few years after 
breaking the sod. In fact, in some of the more arid regions more 
organic matter is needed from the start, as at Wheatland, Wyo. 
Any system of agriculture to be permanent must provide for the 
maintenance of the fertility of the soil, but in the territory here dis- 
cussed the average farmer has not learned how to exhaust this, 
so its maintenance does not give him any immediate concern. The 
problem now at hand for the average farmer is to learn how to use 
profitably the fertility already present and how to produce crops 
with the limited amount of water received. When this is done, 
when he lias learned how to utilize the native fertility of the soil 
under the prevailing climatic conditions, then attention may well be 
given to soil maintenance and improvement. It is altogether proba- 
ble, however, that the addition of humus would so change the water- 
holding properties of the soil as to enable a crop to be produced with 
less rainfall. 

The large crops produced in wet seasons and the large crops grown 
under irrigation all attest the value of the soil. The size of these 
crops is probably due in no small measure to the very dryness of the 
climate, contradictory as this may seem. 

A severe and long-continued drought ^ usually leaves the soil in excel- 

lent shape for a crop the following season, indicating that a complete drying out of 
the soil for a prolonged period brings about beneficial changes in the soil. Indeed, 
in keeping soils of poor or average fertility in an air-dry condition in the laboratory 
for several months they are usually found more productive when tested with plants 
again. ^ 



1 Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils, pp. 27 and 28. 
215 



2 Bulletin 55, Bureau of Soils, p. 63. 



20 



AGRICULTURE IK THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 



HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE REGION. 

For 40 years, at least, the history of the settlement of the Plains 
has been one of periodic advance and retrogression. Periods in which 
settlement was rapid, energetic, and general have alternated with 
periods when abandonment, desertion, and return, were almost as 
rapid and often prosecuted mth as little judgment. But each wave 
of settlement pushed permanent agriculture farther west. The recoil 
never forced it back to its former limits, nor were the desertions ever 
complete. After each exodus, scattered settlers remained all over 
the territory that had been occupied. 

The first wave that really populated the semiarid region was at 
its height in 1886. This wave carried settlement across the western 
counties of Kansas and Nebraska and well into Colorado. There 
was, however, a wide strip of public land still vacant east of the foot- 
liills across Colorado and farther north, in Wyoming, and in some of 
the extreme western counties of Nebraska. Not only did the settlers 
fail to appreciate the difficulties before them but many were wholly 
unprepared to face any hardships. They came, not only without any 
knowledge of the country, but without money with which to establish 
themselves — without means of maintenance till crops could be grown, 
to say nothing about stock and machinery. They had little or no 
working capital. They believed that if they could only get a claim" 
they would succeed some way. 

A few good crops came, then poor seasons, and the return com- 
menced. Dry seasons and the panic of the nineties struck together 
with disastrous results. Lands which had been priced at from $5 to 
$20 or more per acre were offered for taxes, and often without a 
bidder. Under these conditions much of the land naturally fell into 
the hands of loan companies and far-seeing speculators. In one 
county several thousand quarter sections were allowed to revert to 
the county for taxes. These were finally all sold to a single company 
at $30 per 160 acres. 

The abandonment was so complete in places that towns once of 
several hundred inhabitants were marked only by the empty school 
buildings, the cellars, and the hydrants remaining from the city water 
systems. Even within the last few months newspapers have reported 
the moving of one of these towns during a single night to escape the 
payment of bonds for over $30,000 voted during boom days to pro- 
vide a water system. 

At the time these lands were first taken little or nothing was known 
by the average settler concerning the climate. If there was a sus- 
picion that rainfall was deficient it was entirely lost sight of in the 
delusion that rainfall followed the plow. The homesteaders confi- 
dently expected that in a few years the short-grass country would 

215 



HISTORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF THE EEGION. 



21 



prove itself the equal of eastern Nebraska and Iowa, and that the 
same methods of farming would be equally successful. They finally 
awoke to their mistake and, not knowing any w^ay to meet the hard 
conditions, returned, generally to the region from which they had 
come. In many cases they carried with them an opinion of the dry 
country which was as much worse than the truth as their expectations 
had been too high. For these reasons the man who left the semiarid 
regions 15 or 20 years ago is likely to undervalue the possibilities 
which they possess. 

As has been said, this desertion took place during the period of the 
lowest prices which a generation has known and during the most 
severe series of dry seasons experienced in 40 years, if not in the 
entire history of the country; years when farmers in the best agri- 
cultural sections of the country were obliged to sell horses, cattle, and 
hogs for anything they would bring, for lack of feed to keep them. 
Economic factors were as potent in bringing about these conditions 
as natural ones. 

CONDITIONS THAT HAVE BROUGHT ABOUT RESETTLEMENT. 

With the return of normal financial conditions and the increase in 
demand for agricultural products, prices began to rise and continued 
to rise till now they are at a point scarcely dreamed of 15 years ago. 
Favorable seasons returned large crops and the result has been the 
greatest period of prosperity that farmers have ever known. Farm- 
ing became a very profitable business. In consequence, land values 
rose enormously, and of necessity rents also. Men who had failed to 
secure a foothold for themselves and those who thought their farms 
too valuable for what they produced, began to seek cheaper lands. 
New crops and new machinery had been introduced into the dry 
country and the few settlers who had remained produced good crops 
at a good profit. If any other influence was needed to bring about 
the settlement of the dry lands it was furnished by the land specu- 
lators and other promoters who took advantage of the opportunity 
and made every effort to give impetus to the movement, many of 
them using the most unscrupulous methods. Magazine writers, 
speculators, and enthusiasts heralded what was said to be the dis- 
covery of new methods of tillage which were certain to produce 
enormous crops every year. It has been commonly stated that such 
methods were in general practice on the Plains and that the good 
crops of recent years were entirely due to them, when as a matter of 
fact these crops have in most cases been due to more than normal 
rainfall. There is no marked improvement in the methods of tillage 
practiced on the majority of farms. This does not mean that nothing 
better can be done. Reference is here made only to what has been 

215 



22 



AGEICULTUEE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



done and is now being done on the overwhelming majority of farms in 
the region under discussion. There are a very few farms on which 
improved methods have been followed, and these farms indicate that 
much better crops are possible than the average farmer has secured. 

Seeing the movement to the dry lands gaining momentum, specu- 
lators bought large ranches and employed agents in all parts of the 
country to parcel out the lands at a large profit. The result was an 
organized campaign for settlers. This could not have been con- 
demned if the advertisers had been content with describing the semi- 
arid region as it really is, but much of the advertising has been mis- 
leading and much of it positively untrue. 

Kailroads have been important factors in promoting settlement in 
all the western country. It was a good business proposition for them 
to increase the population of the country through which they had 
built, and, furthermore, many of them had large tracts of land which 
they were anxious to sell. 

Strange as it may seem, the establishment of experiment stations 
in the region has had a strong influence in bringing in settlers. Some- 
how people seem to take the location of an experiment station as a 
guaranty that farming will be successful in the vicinit}^ The loca- 
tion of a station has almost always immediatel}^ increased the demand 
for and enhanced the price of land in the neighborhood. It should 
not be forgotten that most of the experiment stations in the region 
have been established only a few years, during which more than the 
usual number of favorable seasons have occurred. Many of the 
heavy yields produced at these stations have been largely due to 
abundant rainfall, as has sometimes been stated in their bulletins, 
but people frequently lose sight of the climatic conditions and attrib- 
ute the results entirely to the methods and the seed used. 

FARM PRACTICES IN THE REGION. 

A very common method of putting in grain has been to go into a 
field which has received no preparation whatever since the last crop 
was harvested and with a seeding attachment on a disk cultivator, go 
over the ground once, and perhaps give one harrowing with a spike- 
tooth harrow afterwards. The writer has seen thousands of acres 
treated in this way, till so much perennial grass had gained a footing 
that it was often difficult to tell just where the field ended and the 
virgin prairie began. 

Most of the land has seldom been plowed. Corn and sorghum 
have generally been listed in without any previous preparation of the 
soil and have been cultivated one to three times, the ground being 
treated the same way year after year or alternated with small grain 
disked in on the stalk grQund. Since disk drills came into use it has 

215 



FAEM PRACTICES IK THE REGION. 23 

been common to drill grain right into the stubble without any soil 
preparation. 

Shiftless as these methods may seem, it is hardly safe to so char- 
acterize them. These old settlers are not, as a rule, shiftless, but are 
energetic, practical, and optimistic. Many of them before going to 
the semiarid country were good farmers in more humid sections; the 
methods which they use have been reluctantly resorted to after 
long experience and are not without some merit. Their methods are 
to be considered as adaptations to the existing conditions. In reply 
to questions concerning these practices a common response is, '^If 
the season is good anything will produce a crop, and if it is bad noth- 
ing will do any good. If I do good work I lose it either way." So 
far as the methods of cultivation common in humid sections are 
concerned, this statement is not without at least a coloring of truth. 
The principle has been to cover the largest possible acreage with the 
least possible work and expense. Some failures, many light crops, 
and a few large crops have been obtained; yet the evidence is that 
where the rainfall is from 18 to 20 inches corn and wheat have been 
produced at about the same cost per bushel as in eastern Nebraska 
and eastern Kansas. It must not, however, be concluded from this 
that farming has been as profitable on the average as farther east. 
There are many disadvantages connected with crop failure besides 
the loss of the crop itself. It is a great disadvantage to have to tide 
over one or two seasons at any time without a crop. There are also 
many social disadvantages connected with living in a sparsely settled 
country, often at long distances from markets, schools, and churches. 

These conditions and practices make large areas necessary for the 
support of a family; but large areas have usually been available. 
Grazing land has been free or obtainable at a nominal rental, and 
very little feed has been used, even during the winter. Yet on the 
whole the condition of the settlers has been far from satisfactory, 
especialty when the rainfall is less than 18 inches. If these men had 
been confined to the use of their own lands existence would hardly 
have been possible. 

Within the last few years a number of important changes have 
taken place. Larger and better machinery has come into use; the 
hand separator and the centralized creamery have made a market 
for cream at every station; new crops have been introduced. Durum 
wheat, which gives a better average yield than other spring wheats 
and a much better yield in dry seasons, has become a common crop 
from Kansas north. Turkey Eed winter wheat has advanced into 
the dry country and by the use of the press drill and better methods 
of cultivation is made, in many counties, a much more productive 
crop than spring varieties ever were. This is especially true of a 

215 



24 



AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMTARID GREAT PLAINS. 



number of counties in Kansas near the eastern limit of the region. 
Emmer and new varieties of oats have helped. Sorghum and, in 
Kansas and southeastern Colorado, kafir and milo have become 
important crops. A very few farmers are using what are generally 
considered good dry-land methods. Most of the region has had an 
unusual number of wet seasons during the last 10 or 12 years, espe- 
cially that portion north of the north line of Kansas, most of which 
has now had five or six unusually favorable seasons in succession. 

But the most potent factor in bringing about, more prosperous con- 
ditions has been the great advance in prices of products, while there 
has been but slight advance in the farmer's necessary expenses. A 
few years ago wheat sold at 30 to 40 cents a bushel, where it now 
brings 80 cents to $1, while the cost of production, aside from rent, 
has remained almost the same, if it has not actually decreased. 
Without considering rent, 8 bushels of wheat to the acre is a profit- 
able crop at present prices. There is more than a living in it. But 
what was such a crop at 30 cents ? Then, 25 bushels to the acre was 
not as good as 8 bushels now. During several years, when there was 
a surplus, corn was worth more to burn than to sell. It was cheaper 
fuel than coal. In fact, there were times when, if the grower were 
obliged to stay overnight on the trip to market, his load would have 
scarcely more than paid his expenses if he stayed at a hotel and put 
his team in a barn, as he does now. Cattle were correspondingly 
low; hogs were $2 to $3 a hundredweight; and eggs and butter were 
scarcely salable at all. 

Interest is another factor of great importance to the man short of 
money. Fifteen years ago 2 to 3 per cent a month in advance were- 
common rates of interest on chattel loans. The writer once saw a 
banker attempt to lend a farmer $64 in return for a note for $100 
due in one year. This amounts to over 56 per cent interest. Now, 
very reasonable rates can be secured, though not as low as farther 
east. 

THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 

The hopes for better results in the future than have been secured 
in the past lie in (1) the continuance of high prices of agricultural 
products, (2) the general adoption of better methods of cultivation 
especially adapted to the conservation of moisture, (3) the intro- 
duction and development of more drought-resistant varieties of 
grains, forage crops, grasses, and vegetables, (4) the more careful 
and systematic management of the farm as a whole, (5) a change of 
attitude among the people from that of sojourners and speculators 
to that of permanent home builders, and (6) the fact that there is 
now a considerable population of ''drought-resistant" settlers. 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



25 



FUTURE PRICES OF PRODUCTS. 

In the light of the history of agricultural development throughout 
the country it would seem comparatively certain that prices of farm 
products must average higher in the future than they have during 
the last 25 years. All prominent industrialists and political econ- 
omists appear to be agreed upon this point. Therefore, it seems 
comparatively safe to assume that smaller yields of grain than have 
been required in the past will be sufficient to produce a living profit. 

IMPROVED METHODS OF TILLAGE. 

In the Great Plains region by far the largest portion of the 
precipitation comes during the warm months, and it is probably 
impossible to conserve as large a proportion of the rainfall as can be 
saved in the regions where the heavy precipitation occurs during the 
cooler weather; but the work at North Platte, Nebr., and other sta- 
tions in the Plains region shows that on summer-tilled fields probably 
40 or 50 per cent of the summer rainfall can be gotten into the first 
6 feet of soil and held there for the use of the next season's crop. 

It has~been frequently asserted that all the rainfall of one year 
may be imprisoned in the soil and retained there for the use of the 
following crop. This, however, is a serious mistake. It requires 
about 3 or 4 inches of dry surface mulch to prevent serious loss of 
water from the soil below. All the water which does not get through 
this mulch into the lower layers of soil will be lost , to the air by 
evaporation and not be available for storage. It is evident that, in 
a region where a large part of the rainfall comes in light showers 
during the warm weather, a very large proportion of the precipita- 
tion serves only to wet the surface mulch and is evaporated from it 
directly into the air. Ordinarily, showers of one-third of an inck or 
less coming in the warm part of the year are utterly useless as far 
as storing water in summer-tilled land is concerned and not infre- 
quently are a source of positive loss, as, being only sufficient to wet 
the surface mulch and cause a crust to form, they make cultivation 
necessary for no other purpose than to break the crust thus produced, 
in order to prevent the loss of water already stored in the lower 
layers of soil and to prevent the growth of weeds that would imme- 
diately spring up. These statements must not be understood as 
applying to growing crops. Light showers may be of great value to 
a growing crop, but for the storing of water by summer tillage light 
showers are often not only of no value, but are a positive damage. 

In the Great Plains region, then, it seems fair to assume that not 
more than 40 to 60 per cent of the rainfall can be gotten deep enough 
into the soil of a summer-tilled field to be retained there. Most of 

215 



26 



AGEICULTUEE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



the soils are capable of holding between 10 and 17 inches of water ♦ 
in the first 6 feet, but it is not always possible to get them filled to 
their full capacity, nor can plant roots draw all the water out of the 
soil. There will always be a considerable amount of water remain- 
ing in the soil when plants cease to grow, and even when they die 
on account of drought. The more rapid the evaporation, the greater 
will be the quantity of water in the soil when plants begin to suffer, 
because plants can not draw water as rapidly from a comparatively 
dry soil as from a wetter one. The amount of water which soil still 
contains when plants have ceased to grow normally varies with the 
character of the soil, being greatest in clay and least in sand. In most 
of the Plains soils it is from 4 to 7 per cent of the dry weight of the 
soil, or approximately that number of inches of water is "distributed 
through the first 6 feet of soil. On the other hand, plants will live, 
though they will not grow much, till they have reduced the water 
content of the soil nearly, though not quite, as low as the dry air 
will be able to reduce it. Hence, it may be assumed that one-half to 
three-fourths of the water which is stored in the soil is actually 
available for normal plant growth. In a season, then, of 16 inches 
of rainfall, if one-half of it is stored in the first 6 feet of soil there 
will be 8 inches of water conserved. Probably 4 to 7 inches will be 
actually available for the use of plants; that is, a reserve of 4 to 7 
inches of water is carried over to supplement the rainfall of the suc- 
ceeding season or to start winter grain and keep it growing till spring 
rains come. This stored water, however, is much more valuable to 
growing crops than an equal amount of rainfall, because it is down 
so far in the soil that a much smaller percentage of it is lost by evapo- 
ration from the surface than of the rain which falls upon the crop. 
A small amount of water is often invaluable in enabling a crop to pass 
successfully through a dry spell which it would not otherwise with- 
stand. In this way even a very small reserve may determine the fate 
of the crop. 

From this it will readily be seen that there are many places on the 
Great Plains where it would not seem probable that summer tillage 
would conserve sufficient moisture, together with the rainfall of the 
succeeding season, to produce a profitable crop. 

How much rainfall is absolutely necessary to produce one crop in 
two years is largely a matter of speculation. At present, however, 
it does not seem that in the region under discussion profitable crops 
can be expected without a precipitation of at least 15 or 16 inches in 
one of the two years; that is, either while the ground is being summer- 
tilled or while it is growing the crop. When a season with only 8 or 
10 inches of rainfall is followed by one equally dry it does not seem 
possible that even summer tillage will produce a paying crop. But 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



27 



if the summer tillage is conducted through a season of considerable 
rainfall followed by a dry season, it may be altogether possible to 
produce a profitable crop. When a dry season is followed by a dry 
season, the prospects for success seem small indeed. 

In all the region under discussion, even in the eastern part, seasons 
of much less than 16 inches of rainfall are likely to occur. Where 
the average is only 15 or 16 inches, fully half the seasons will have 
less than this amount, and presumably, even with the best known 
methods for the conservation of moisture, many light crops and a 
considerable number of failures must be expected. 

Statements have frequently been published by uninformed or un- 
scrupulous persons which leave the impression, if they do not actu- 




FiG. 2.— A field of wheat on summer-tilled land, Phillips County, Colo., 1909. 



ally say, that 40 to 60 bushels of wheat per acre can be produced 
every other year by summer tillage wherever the average precipita- 
tion is 10 inches. Such statements must be considered as purely 
visionary and without any foundation in fact.^ So far as the writer 
is aware, the best yields of wheat obtained on summer-tilled land 
anywhere in the Great Plains region for a period of years have been 
secured by one farmer in Logan County, Colo., and one in Phillips 
County, Colo. '(See fig. 2.) The first reports an average of 28 bushels 
to the acre for five years and the second 35^ bushels to the acre for 

1 In the State of Washington, where the conditions are especially favorable for wheat growing, and where 
summer tillage has reached a high development, the yield of wheat in those regions where there is an annual 
precipitation of 10 to 12 inches seldom exceeds 20 bushels to the acre. The yields usually obtained with 
that amount of rainfall will run from 7 to 15 bushels, depending on conditions. 
215 



28 



AGRICULTUKE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



seven years. These crops were all produced on land that had been 
thoroughly summer-tilled and durmg a period of seasons more favor- 
able than the average. It must be remembered that each of these 
crops required two years for its production. 

In the matter of summer tillage for the conservation of moisture there 
is considerable variation in the practices of the best dr^^-land farmers. 
The best method appears to be to double-disk the land in the summer 
as soon as possible after the grain is cut (if a small-grain crop was 
grown), and again in the spring as early as the ground can be worked, 
and then disk or harrow as often as is necessar}^ to keep down the 
weeds and to keep the crust broken till about June; then plow as 
deeply as the available horsepower will permit, disking or harrowing 
each half-day's plowing before leaving the field, or, better, using a 
revolving pulverizer attachment on the plow. After this the ground 
must be double-disked, harrowed, or worked with some other surface 
cultivator as often as is necessary to keep the crust broken, maintain 
a good surface mulch, and keep the weeds down till time for seeding 
winter wheat. A field tilled in this way is shown in figure 3, while 
the crop grown on an adjoining field similarly tilled the precedmg 
year is shown in figure 2. 

The depth of surface mulch required will vary somewhat with 
different soils and other varying conditions, but will generally need 
to be 3 or 4 inches. This should not be a dust mulch but a mulch of 
granular soil or small clods. A dust mulch is not only less efi'ective 
in conservmg moisture than a mulch of small clods but is a very 
uncertain thing to hold in a region of high winds. A dust mulch of 
3 or 4 inches might be blown off the entire field in a single day. In 
maintaining the mulch it is best to vary the depth of cultivation so as 
to prevent the formation of a crust below the mulch. 

Before time for seeding, that part of the soil between the surface 
niulch and the bottom of the plowing should be well firmed in order 
to reestablish connection between the furrow slice and the soil below, 
enabling the water to rise by capillarity to within easy reach of the 
young plants and form a firm seed bed, which is an absolute necessity 
for the best development of the small grains and grasses. This con- 
dition may be secured by subsurface packing immediately after the 
plow, but the subsequent working will usually give the required 
condition. When considerable rain falls between the time of plowing 
and the time of seeding this will serve to firm the lower part of the 
furrow and connect it with the soil below. Packing will insure the 
filling of the air spaces left in the soil as it falls from the moldboard of 
the plow and will bring the moist soil in contact with whatever stubble 
or trash may be turned under and hasten its decay — an important 
point. Packing will show the greatest benefits on light soils in dry 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



29 



seasons and on late plowing. It may be of no benefit in a wet season 
and may be harmful on heavy soil. 

There are various types of corrugated rollers and special subsurface 
packers made for this purpose, and the w^ork may be done with the 
common disk by setting it straight and weighting it to make it run 
deep. Subsurface packing is important not only on summer-tilled 
but also on spring-plowed land that is to raise a crop the same season. 

In western Kansas and eastern Colorado the lister is very much in 
favor and the farmers use it for every possible purpose. Most of the 
few who have done any summer-tilling do not plow the ground but 
list the land that is to be summer-tilled just after they get through 




Fig. 3.— a summer-tilled field where winter w^heat will be grown, adjacent to the field shown in figure 2. 



planting corn (fig. 4), then throw down the ridges. About the last 
of June or the first of July they list again, splitting the middles left 
by the first listing. They then throw down the ridges and do what- 
ever additional cultivation is necessary to keep down the weeds and 
maintain the surface mulch. This is a cheaper way of doing the 
work than plowing, because less cultivation is required. It has an 
advantage also in the fact that if the weeds attain any considerable 
size (which should never be allowed), the ridges enable the farmer to 
kill the weeds without plowing the ground. It does not seem to the 
writer, however, that this method can, on the average, produce as 
favorable results as that previously described, although there are no 
data at hand to show the comparative values of the two methods. 

215 



30 



AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 



Conservation of moisture is not the only benefit derived from sum- 
mer tillage, although it is one of the most important reasons for the 
good results following. Such tillage puts the ground in very much 
better physical condition for plant growth, aside from the more 
favorable moisture content. There is abundant evidence also that 
there is more available plant food in the upper layers of soil and within 
easy reach of the plant roots. This, however, must not be interpreted 
to mean that fertility has or has not been added to the soil. The 
temperature and moisture conditions secured by the clean and 
thorough cultivation given are favorable for changing the condition 
of the plant food already in the soil so that plants may use it, while it 
was previously in unusable form. 




Fig. 4.— a field summer-tilled by listing instead of plowing, Rawlins County, Kans-, 1909. 

One of the very important effects of summer tillage on winter 
wheat is that it enables the wheat to start at once with a vigorous 
growth and so enter the winter in good condition. It thus comes 
through the winter strong, well rooted, and ready to take advantage 
of any opportunities for growth. In this condition it is able to with- 
stand considerable hardship, when wheat on land less thoroughly 
prepared suffers in the winter and comes through weak or dies. It 
will often happen that the field which was summer-tilled the preceding 
season will contain little, if any, more moisture in the spring in the 
first 3 feet of soil than a field which grew a crop and was plowed and 
seeded to wheat, but the wheat on the summer-tilled land will have 
so much better start that it will go on and make a crop under condi- 
tions that would cause the other to fail. It appears also that grain on 
summer-tilled land, either by virtue of better root systems or because 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



31 



of the better capillary condition of the soil, is able to draw water 
from a greater depth. ^ Summer tillage is not practicable on all soils 
nor for all crops. Soils which are likely to blow, especially very 
sandy soils, can not be bare tilled because they will blow away. 

Summer tillage has proved a success for winter wheat and by this 
method of cultivation winter wheat becomes the surest crop in the 
region; but without summer tillage winter wheat is as uncertain in 
much of the region as spring grain. Summer tillage considerably 
increases the yield of spring grains also. It is still uncertain whether 
it is profitable to summer-till for spring grain or whether all the 
summer-tilled land should be utilized for winter wheat and potatoes. 

There are now sufficient experimental data at hand to show con- 
clusively that summer tillage is not profitable for corn, all results 
indicating that corn on spring-plowed land will outyield that on 
summer-tilled land. With all cultivated crops frequent, thorough, 
and shallow cultivation is of the utmost importance. Unless the 
season is unusually favorable the harrow should be used frequently 
on corn, potatoes, and small grain until the plants are so large as to 
be damaged by this implement. 

Up to the present time the methods employed in the semiarid 
plains have, for the most part, been merely a makeshift. That 
these methods must and will be changed for the better is certain. 
General agriculture can never have a substantial foundation in this 
region until tillage for the conservation of moisture is generally 
practiced. In the face of the fact that so much has been done in 
the way of tillage for the conservation of moisture in parts of Utah, 
Oregon, Washington, and Canada, it is a w^onder that so little has 
been done on our semiarid plains. The work of the agricultural 
experiment stations and of the progressive farmers in the region has 
now gone far enough to prove that by the use of methods for mois- 
ture conservation which have accomplished so much in the far 
northwest a considerable amount of moisture can be conserved and 
used for crop production in aU portions of the semiarid region. 

INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF DROUGHT-RESISTANT CROPS. 

As regards the introduction and development of drought-resistant 
crops, much is to be expected. The Department of Agriculture has 
experts scouring all parts of the world in search of plants which 
may prove valuable in the various sections of the United States. 
There are many regions in the Old World where the climatic condi- 
tions are very similar to those of our semiarid Plains and upon which 
civilized men have maintained themselves for thousands of years. 
Many varieties of drought-resistant plants adapted to our semiarid 

1 See ''Some Soil Studies in Dry-Land Regions," by Dr. F. J. Alway, in Bulletin 130. Bureau of Plant 
Industry, 1908, p. 38. 

215 



32 AGRICULTUKE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 

regions have already been discovered in such places and introduced 
to the decided advantage of the Plains farmers. Among these may 
be mentioned durum wheat, brome-grass, alfalfa, milo, kafir, and 
sorghum. It is to be expected that many other useful varieties 
will yet be discovered and introduced. 

The development of new varieties requires in most cases a con- 
siderable period of years, and yet since the semiarid region was first 
settled marked improvements have already been made in many of 
our crops. Some of the varieties of corn, for example, which have 
been developed on the dry lands by selection are much more capable 
of producing crops under the severe conditions existing than was 
the original stock from which they have descended. Milo a few 
years ago was a tall plant of irregular height and produced drooping 
heads, but careful breeding, has developed a quite uniform dwarf 
strain with erect heads. Hardy varieties of winter emmer, barley, 
and oats may be expected in the near future, each of which would 
be of great value to the dry country as well as to many other sections. 

As nearly all our common grains have been developed from plants 
which in their early history were adapted only to much more humid 
climates than those in which we now grow them, there is no reason 
for thinking that varieties and strains of these plants may not yet 
be produced which will succeed with far less water than is required 
by the present varieties. With the rapid advancement which has 
been made in agricultural science and plant breeding within the 
last few years it would seem only reasonable to expect results to be 
obtained in much less time than has been required in the past. 
There is work now going on at some of the agricultural experiment 
stations w^hich indicates that it may be possible within a few years 
to breed a variety of corn which will produce an equal amount of 
grain with perhaps only two-thirds as much water as is now required. 
To what extent drought-resistant varieties may be developed and 
how much may be accomplished in reducing the water requirements 
of plants is purely a matter of speculation, but the work has alread}^ 
gone far enough to give assurance of considerable success in this 
line. A word of caution to the individual may be necessary here. 
Plant breeding, while it will surely play an important part in the 
future development of the region, is too slow a process for the indi- 
vidual to wait for or to depend upon. It is a regional rather than 
an individual proposition. 

Over all the region in question the only winter wheats that have 
proved themselves sufficiently hardy are of the Crimean type, such 
as Turkey Red and Klharkof. Common spring wheat is largely grown 
on the table-lands south of Wray, Colo., and also in eastern Wyo- 
ming and the adjacent parts of Nebraska. It seems comparatively 
certain, however, that with good tillage, winter wheat will far out- 
yield the common spring varieties, even in these sections. 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



33 



Durum, or macaroni, wheat is giving better yields than the com- 
mon spring varieties in nearly all sections north of the Kansas- 
Nebraska line, but south of this line it has not been so satisfactory. 
The yields of durum wheat commonly approach those of winter 
wheat when given similar advantages of cultivation. Durum wheat, 
however, is at a great disadvantage, because it is commonly dis- 
criminated against on the market to the extent of 5 to 20 cents a 
bushel. The lower price frequently offsets the higher yield and makes 
the crop no more profitable than other spring varieties. Experi- 
ments at North Platte, Nebr., indicate that durum wheat will pro- 
duce more feed to the acre than either oats or emmer. There would 
seem, then, no good reason why it should not be grown in preference 
to either of these crops unless the straw of oats and emmer is enough 
better feed than the wheat straw to overcome the difference in favor 
of the wheat. 

Early varieties of oats are much more certain than late varieties 
in all the southern part of the area under discussion, and are at least 
as productive in the northern portion. The late varieties, however, 
succeed much better north of the South Platte River than they do 
farther south. 

Barley is a valuable feed crop throughout the region, but in most 
places is not so popular as other grains. It has generally been more 
satisfactory in the northern than in the southern sections. Califor- 
nia feed barley appears to be one of the best varieties for feed and 
the common six-rowed the best for market. 

Emmer, commonly called spelt, is quite generally grown as a 
substitute for oats. While this is one of the most drought resistant 
of our spring grains it does not appear to be able to produce any 
more, if as much, feed to the acre than oats, barley, or durum wheat. 

South of the Rock Island Railroad milo is one of the surest and 
most productive grain crops, and at the same time it makes consid- 
erable fodder, though for fodder it is inferior to sorghum and kafir. 
Kafir is also grown in the same territory, but it requires a longer 
season and produces less grain to the acre than milo, though it is a 
much better fodder plant. 

Sorghum stands without a rival as the most important fodder 
crop of the semiarid region as far north as the South Platte River, 
and may be used to advantage throughout the limits of the territory 
under discussion in these pages. 

Millets are of more or less importance throughout the region, but 
are much less productive and less drought resistant than the sor- 
ghums. They have the advantage, however, of being able to mature 
in much less time. 

In a large portion of the region, especially that receiving the heavi- 
est rainfall, alfalfa can be produced with more or less success, but 

215 



34 AGRICULTURE IK THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 

in the drier parts its production on uplands by the use of ordinary 
methods is doubtful. Moderately successful small fields have been 
maintained for a number of years in many localities, as at Santa Fe, 
Kans.; Vernon, Colo.; Colby, Kans.; and Sextorp, Harrison, and 
Alliance, Nebr. Most of the large yields of alfalfa reported from the 
region have been grown on subirrigated valley land, but the public 
has commonly credited them to the upland. There are still many 
subirrigated patches growing buffalo grass that ought to be seeded 
to alfalfa. A number of fields of alfalfa seeded in rows 30 to 36 
inches apart and thoroughly cultivated, very much as corn and 
potatoes are cultivated, have produced very profitable crops for 
several years. The promise for the production of alfalfa seed by 
this method is very bright for the entire region. 

PROMISING SYSTEMS OF FARM MANAGEMENT. 

It does not seem advisable for anyone to attempt to do exclusive 
grain farming in this region and expect to make it a permanent 
success. In the past this has proved inadvisable here, as it has 
nearly everywhere else. On the other hand, it has also been proved 
by the majority of old settlers that for the man with limited means it 
is precarious to depend on stock alone. At least, the most certain 
means of securing a more or less constant income is to give attention 
to a number of different products. This also enables one to accom- 
plish much more with the same number of laborers, because it fur- 
nishes more constant employment. 

As has been mentioned previously, the growth of grass is com- 
paratively small in this dry country. For this reason a large area is 
required for pasturage. In most places somewhere from 8 to 20 
acres of native grass, together with 2 tons of rough feed, though often 
this amount of rough feed is not used, are required to carry one grown 
horse or cow the year round, or 1 square mile will commonly pasture 
from 30 head on the drier and sandier lands to 80 head on the best 
lands. This, together with the frequent light crops, makes it essen- 
tial that settlers own or control larger areas of land than are required 
to maintain a family in more humid regions. 

It is impossible to say definitely what the farm unit should be or 
on how small a tract a family can live. The acreage required must 
necessarily vary much with the local conditions, but it will vary even 
more with the man. There is much truth in the old saying ^'Thar's 
more in the man than thar is in the Ian'." However, some general 
statement on this subject may serve to give those unfamiliar with the 
conditions a better idea. It is the writer's opinion that on the better 
lands near the eastern limit of the territory 320 acres should be 
sufficient to support a family, but near the western limit for general 
agriculture two to four sections will be needed. In most cases only 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 36 

150 to 200 acres should be broken and the rest used for pasture. 
These figures must be taken as only suggestive. It will appear to 
many that the area here allowed for the pasturing of one animal is 
excessive, but it is none too much. It will also be suggested that 
cultivated grasses can be sown which will very much reduce this area; 
but experience has not yet proved it advisable to make a general 
practice of plowing up the native grass with the expectation of making 
a better pasture by sowing something else. It must be remembered 
that the higher rate of evaporation in the southern portion of the 
territory makes the conditions there more severe and the > acreage 
required larger than is necessary with the same rainfall farther north. 

On the heavier lands it now seems that the most promising system 
of management is about as follows : Leave a large portion of the farm, 
probably three-fourths, or all but 100 to 200 acres, in native pasture, 
and keep all the dual-purpose cows the pasture will carry, along with 
the young cattle, horses, and colts. Butter or cream is one of the 
surest sources of income and profit. There should be pasture enough 
to feed one animal for every 1 to 2 acres of land under cultivation; 
in the best portions of the region, however, the farmers have not 
always found it mo^t profitable to keep so much stock. There should 
always be a large flock of poultry. Hens will lay in dry seasons as 
well as in wet. One of the first objects on the farm land, then, must 
be to raise feed for the stock. In seasons of good crops the farmer 
must stack feed to carry over and to tide him through dry years. He 
must reverse the old adage learned in his youth, ^^Lay by something 
for a rainy day," and in this country must learn, both with regard to 
himself and his stock, to lay by something for the dry day. Of the 
farm land one-fifth to one-third should be summer-tilled each year for 
winter wheat and potatoes for money crops, these to be followed with 
corn or some fodder crop, and the third year with spring grain or 
summer fallow. 

Assuming that the farm contains 640 acres, one-fourth of which is 
under cultivation, the foregoing plans would call for one of the follow- 
ing rotations on each field: 

Rotation for farm of 640 acres, one fourth under cultivation. 



THREE-YEAR ROTATION. 

First year, summer- tilled. 
Second year, winter wheat 

and potatoes. 
Third year, corn and rough 

feed. 

Fourth year, summer-tilled. 
Fifth year, same as second. 
Sixth year, same as third. 



FOUR-YEAR ROTATION. 

Summer-tilled. 

Winter wheat and potatoes. 

Corn. 

Spring grain and rough 

feed. 
Summer-tilled . 
Winter wheat and potatoes. 



FIVE-YEAR ROTATION. 

Summer-tilled. 

Winter wheat and potatoes. 

Corn. 

Spring grain. 

Rough feed and corn. 

Summer-tilled. 



215 



36 AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 

These rotations would give the following acreages of each crop on 
the farm each year: 

Acreages in different crops for farm of 6A0 acres, one-fourth under cultivation. 



THREE-YEAR ROTATION. 

53 acres summer-tilled. 

53 acres in winter wheat and 

potatoes. 
53 acres in corn and rough 

feed. 



FOUR-YEAR ROTATION. 

40 acres summer -tilled. 
40 acres in winter wheat 

and potatoes. 
40 acres in corn. 
40 acres in spring grain 

and rough feed. 



FIVE-YEAR ROTATION. 

32 acres summer-tilled. 
32 acres in winter wheat and 

potatoes. 
32 acres in corn. 
32 acres in spring grain. 
32 acres in corn and rough 

feed. 



In the southern part of the territory winter barley and in the 
northern part winter rye may replace a part of the winter wheat. 
No one of these systems, of course, could be followed on all farms, 
but some one of them can easily be varied to meet almost any of the 
local conditions. On the sandier lands summer tillage can not be 
practiced and winter wheat does not do well. On such lands corn, 
sorghum, emmer, and rye must be the main crops. 

In the best part of the area the five-year rotation will probably 
give the largest net returns, while in the western part the three-year 
rotation will best fit the conditions. It should be noted that winter 
wheat and potatoes follow summer tillage in all rotations. That is 
because summer tillage has proved more profitable for these crops 
than for any others. Summer tillage has not proved profitable for 
corn, and therefore this crop follows winter wheat. The thorough 
cultivation which corn requires leaves the soil in good condition for 
spring grain; in fact, many tests have given as good yields of spring 
grain following corn as on summer-tilled land. Sorghum is the most 
vigorous feeder and the most drought-resistant crop of all, and for 
that reason is placed last in the series. Sorghum also dries out the 
ground so completely that the following crop is entirely dependent 
upon the rainfall of the current season, there being little or no avail- 
able water left in the soil by the time the sorghum is mature. For 
this reason any crop following sorghum is almost sure to give a low 
yield unless timely and abundant rains occur. Following the sorghum 
with summer tillage gives an entire season in which to replenish the 
soil moisture before another crop is planted. 

If the manure is cared for there will be enough to give each field 
a light dressing at least once in the rotation. The writer is well 
aware that farmers in the dry country are generally afraid of manure, 
but he is convinced that the trouble is mostly due to too heavy 
applications. Manure should be spread as evenly as possible and 
great care should be taken that no large bunches are left. The thinner 

215 



THE AGRICULTURAL FUTURE OF THE REGION. 



37 



it is spread the better. It should always be disked or otherwise 
worked into the soil before the ground is plowed. If these precau- 
tions are observed, only good results should be expected. The best 
place in the rotation to apply the manure is probably just preceding 
the sorghum. The sorghum will generally be listed, and so the roots 
will be below the manure. What manure is not incorporated with 
the soil is near the surface and will help conserve moisture instead 
of burning out the crop, as it is very likely to do if a heavy dressing 
is plowed under before it has time to rot. Summer tillage following 
the sorghum gives another full year for the manure to rot before a 
small-grain crop occupies the land. If the land is poor manure may 
be spread very thinly on the winter wheat to good advantage, but if 
the land is rich and a wet season follows the wheat is almost sure to 
lodge. Manure may safely be applied on ground that is to grow 
corn, or it may be spread lightly on the stalk ground before it is 
disked for spring grain. When used in this way it is often of great 
benefit in preventing the soil from blowing. 

None of these rotations provides for a protein feed, but no satis- 
factory high-protein feed crop is available. Any land that will 
grow alfalfa should be seeded to it, and probably with proper care 
this crop can be grown to some extent on every farm. The experi- 
ments with alfalfa in rows 3 or 3^ feet apart and cultivated as regu- 
larly as corn are giving flattering results, and wdiere it is too dry for 
the ordinary seeding it seems almost certain that this method will 
produce valuable seed crops and at the same time some feed. 

Most of the soils of the dry region are short of nitrogen and humus, 
and if alfalfa can be grown for a few years the land will produce 
better crops of other kinds. The writer is personally familiar with 
a small field of alfalfa in northeastern Colorado which died in 1894. 
In the summer of 1908 the native grasses which had taken possession 
were more than twice as thick and tall as on the remainder of the 
field. In irrigated fields on the plains of Colorado yields of grain are 
frequently doubled where alfalfa has been grown. Alfalfa, however, 
leaves the ground very dry, and for that reason the first crop following 
it often suffers severely from drought and makes a light yield unless 
the season is very favorable. 

In much of the sand-hill country and on some of the rough land 
nothing but stock production seems possible; but even here, where 
in reach of a market, the small stockman will find it almost necessary 
to sell cream. In the sand hills hay is usually plentiful, and where 
the settler has valleys that will grow alfalfa or peas milking should 
be profitable. In many of the better valleys potatoes may be pro- 
duced, but in some places the difficulty in getting them to market 
makes them impossible as a market crop. 

215 



38 



AGRICULTURE IN THE SEMIARID GREAT PLAINS. 



To make the homestead more attractive and to furnish shade and 
windbreaks, everyone wants some trees around the house. Besides 
the comfort secured from trees nothing adds more to the appearance 
of a place, and in the whole region nothing is more conspicuous by 
its absence from the settler's home. This is unnecessary. There 
are hardy trees that can be kept growing anywhere in the region 
where crops can be grown if they are given proper care. Wind- 
breaks are valuable for the protection they afford to growing crops 
and stock as well as about the house, and may also be made to yield 
material for fuel, fencing, and farm timbers. They should be kept 
thoroughly cultivated, at least for several years, and fenced from 
stock at all times. The honey locust is one of the best varieties to 
use, and has generally succeeded in the drier portions of the region. 
The green ash is very hardy and may be kept growing, but should 
be planted in the moister situations. In places it may be attacked 
by borers sooner or later. The white elm is also very hardy, and 
while not equal to the honey locust, is in general a more desirable and 
more satisfactory tree. The black locust is quite hardy and a rapid 
grower, but it is almost sure to be destroyed by borers. In some 
portions of the Central Plains region it might be advisable to plant 
Russian mulberry, Russian olive, and Osage orange. The Forest 
Service also recommends the western yellow pine, the jack pine, and 
the Austrian pine for this region. So far as present knowledge goes 
this about exhausts the list of forest trees adapted for planting in 
this section. 

Fruit growing on a commercial scale is not to be recommended, 
but every farmer wants some fruit even if it costs him more in labor 
than it would to buy it. Small fruits, including Early Richmond 
cherries, plums, and currants, can be grown if a little special care is 
given them. Strawberries may also be produced if a little water can be 
secured. Frequently enough water can be spared from the well to 
help a great deal in the garden or on the small fruit. On most farms 
there are slopes where a deep furrow would collect considerable storm 
water and run it to the garden, even when there was only a light 
shower. Advantage should be taken of every such opportunity 
olTered. Without a. garden and some fruit it is hard to call a place 
home. Where ground water is available a windmill may supply 
water for a garden. 

Two of the most prosperous and painstaking farmers of north- 
eastern Colorado have worked out on their farms almost exactly 
such systems as here outlined and have followed them for a number 
of years with marked success, while a considerable number of pro- 
gressive farmers scattered over the region are partially following such 
systems. 

215 



NEED FOR HOME BUILDERS IN THE GREAT PLAINS. 



39 



OPPORTUNITY FOR FARMERS IN THE GREAT PLAINS. 

The Great Plains is not a region where a farmer should expect to 
make large profits with a small investment if he is to confine his opera- 
tions to his own lands. Large profits have been made, but in most 
cases they have been the result either of speculating in lands or of run- 
ning cattle on free grass. More capital is needed to start to advantage 
than in a more humid section, because there is more danger of failure. 
One must often wait till the second year before he has any certainty 
of a profitable crop, for it takes a full season to get land in shape for 
a good crop of w^heat. If the season is unusually favorable the spring 
crops may be very profitable, but the risk in depending on them is 
great. Spring or early summer breaking is almost equal to summer- 
tilled land for small grain if the land has not grown many w^eeds. 

No man should go empty handed into this country, but many men 
with limited means w^ho are willing to endure some privations will be 
able to secure a foothold and establish homes. We are often asked 
how much capital is necessary and whether the land is too high priced. 
Obviously, these are questions which the individual must answer for 
himself. In the Great Plains, as anywhere else, it is not necessary 
that one have sufficient capital to enable him to start free from debt. 
In general, we may say that in our opinion from $6,000 to $8,000 
should buy enough land to support a family of average size, and that 
where it is mainly a stock proposition $50 should buy enough land to 
pasture one cow. It is evident that one can not afford to pay $10 
an acre for land where 4 square miles are required to give one 
family a moderate support. By comparing these statements with 
those concerning the necessary size of the farm, the reader may draw 
his own conclusions. 

No man should think of "dry farming" by what are generally con- 
sidered improved methods as an indifferent or lazy man's job. Dry 
farming, to be successful and permanent, is necessarily good farming. 
The indifferent farmer will get a few good crops, many poor ones, 
and many almost complete failures. The man who has failed in a 
more humid region should not expect to succeed in the Great Plains. 
In a humid region any kind of cultivation is almost sure to bring some 
kind of crop, but not so in the dry country. It is only the best and 
most systematic farming that can be expected to give even mod- 
erate returns in unfavorable seasons, and in some seasons even this 
will fail. 

That there will be many failures among the settlers now locating 
in the drier parts of the region goes without saying. In many places 
inexperienced men are crowding in too thickly and are expecting to 
make a living on far too small an area. They are trying to farm by 

215 



40 AGEICULTURE IN THE SEMIAKIi) GREAT PLAINS. 



the same methods used in more humid sections ar by more careless 
methods, and are depending on timely rains to bring results. Then, 
too, among the immigrants to any undeveloped country there is a 
relativel}^ large proportion of individuals who do not go with a fixed 
purpose to establish a home but expect to sell at the first opportunity. 
In fact, in many sections it is difficult to keep from gaining the impres- 
sion that land speculation is receiving more attention than crop pro- 
duction. Far too many, whether their holdings are deeded lands or 
merely homestead entries, are hoping to sell at a profit rather than to 
establish homes. To such this discussion makes no appeal. It is 
written not as a guide to speculators but as an aid to home seekers. 
The writer does not wish to be understood as condemning land specu- 
lation, but land speculation does not develop the agricultural possi- 
bilities of a region or support a stable population. What is needed 
in the semiarid region is not speculators but home builders — not a 
shifting but a stable, producing population. There probably are 
many people both in this country and in Europe who could be happier, 
freer, more healthy, and more prosperous on the semiarid Plains than 
in their present situations. 

215 



INDEX. 



Page. 

Agriculture, classes of factors affecting 7 

Alfalfa, cultivation in the semiarid region 32, 33-34, 37 

Alkali, presence in the semiarid region 18 

Alway, F. J., on summer tillage in dry-land regions 31 

Ash, green, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Ball, F. M., on the effect of climate on peoples 7-8 

Barley, cultivation in the semiarid region 32, 33, 36 

Capital, requirement for starting a farm in the semiarid region 20, 39 

Changes in economic conditions in the semiarid region 9-10, 23-24 

Cherries, Early Richmond, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Climate, natural factor in agriculture 7, 8-11, 18-19 

Colorado, moisture conditions relative to native plant growth 13, 24, 27, 34 

Corn, cultivation in the semiarid region 22, 32, 35, 36, 37 

Crops, diversity, advisable in the semiarid region 34 

drought resistant, in the semiarid region 21, 23-24, 31-34 

factors affecting moisture needs in the semiarid region 13-15 

failure in the semiarid region, explanation 14, 23, 39^0 

Culture, methods employed in the semiarid region 22-24,25-31 

t Currants, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Dairying in the semiarid region 35, 37 

Desertion of lands by early settlers in the semiarid region 20-21 

Drought, effect upon character of soil 19 

Economic conditions in the semiarid region. See Changes. 

Elm, white, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Emmer, cultivation in the semiarid region 24, 32, 33, 36 

Evaporation, relation to plant growth in the semiarid region 8, 11, 13-15 

Experiment stations. See Stations, experiment. 
Farm practice. See Management, farm. 

Forecast, agricultural, of the semiarid region 24-39 

Forestry, methods adapted to the Great Plains region 38 

Fruits, small, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Grass, brome, cultivation in the semiarid region 32 

^ growth in relation to seasons on the Plains 9 

Growth, plant, permanency of natural factors in the semiarid region 8-9, 11 

Hail, occurrence in Great Plains region 11 

Interest, rate, factor in development of new lands 24 

Introduction to bulletin. 7-8 

Johnson, C. T., on irrigation in Wyoming 18 

Kafir, cultivation in the semiarid region 24, 32, 33 

Kansas, moisture conditions relative to native plant growth 9, 11, 13, 15, 23-24, 34 

Land, area required for farm unit in the semiarid region 34-35 

Light, character in the semiarid region 11, 17 

Live stock. See Stock, live. 

Locust, kinds to cultivate in the semiarid region 38 

Machinery, relation to agriculture in the Great Plains region 10, 20, 22-23 

^ - Management, farm, development in the semiarid region 10,22-24,34-40 

215 ■ 41 



42 



AGEICULTTJRE IN THE SEMIAEID GREAT PLAINS. 



Page. 

Manure, application in the semiarid region 36-37 

Millet, cultivation in the semiarid region 33 

Milo, cultivation in the semiarid region 24, 32, 33 

Mistakes of settlers in new countries 8, 11, 20-22, 24, 27, 39-40 

Moisture, conservation the vital problem of the semiarid region 13, 19, 24-31 

Mulberry, Russian, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Mulch, surface, preparation in the semiarid region 28 

Nebraska, moisture conditions relative to native plant growth. 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 23, 32, 34 

North Dakota, moisture conditions relative to native plant growth 11, 14 

North Platte River, annual discharge in acre-inches for basin 18 

Oats, cultivation in the semiarid region 24, 32, 33 

Olive, Russian, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Orange, Osage, planting in the semiarid region 38 

Packing, subsurface, purpose in the semiarid region 28-29 

Pasturage, area required per animal in the semiarid region 34, 35 

Pines, kinds recommended for planting in the semiarid region 38 

Plant growth. See Growth, plant. 

Plants, natural requirements for proper development 11 

Plums, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Potatoes, cultivation in the semiarid region 35, 36, 37 

Poultry in the semiarid region 35 

Practices, farm. See Management, farm. 
Precipitation. See Rainfall. 

Prices, relation to agriculture in the semiarid region 10, 24, 25 

Prosperity, explanation of advance, in the semiarid region 10 

Railroads, factors in promoting settlement of lands 22 

Rainfall, fallacy of belief that it follows the plow 8, 11, 20 

relation to crops in the semiarid region 10-13, 17-18, 25, 26-27 

Republican River, annual discharge in acre-inches for basin 17 

Resettlement of the semiarid region, methods of promotion 21-22 

Rotation, crop, application to the semiarid region 35-36 

Russell, Thomas, experiments on wind velocity and evaporation 16 

Rye, cultivation in the semiarid region 36 

Semiarid, definition of term 11 

extent of region 10-11 

Settlement, semiarid region, factors 9-10, 20-22, 31, 32 

Soil, natural factor of agriculture 7, 8, 9, 18-19 

Sorghum, cultivation in the semiarid region 22, 24, 32, 33, 36, 37 

Speculators, land, practices in the semiarid region 20, 21, 22, 24, 40 

Spelt. See Emmer. 

Stability, climatic, natural factors in the semiarid region 9 

Stations, experiment, factors in promoting settlement of lands 22, 31, 32 

Stock, live, adaptability of the semiarid region 9, 10, 20, 24, 34, 35, 37, 38 

Strawberries, cultivation in the semiarid region 38 

Texas, moisture conditions relative to native plant growth 11, 14, 16 

Thatcher, R. W., on the relative value of winter and summer rains 13 

Tillage, improved methods in the Great Plains region 21-22, 25-31 

Topography, factor determining native flora 9 

Trees, cultivation in semiarid region 38 

Unit, farm, in the semiarid region 34 

Utah, moisture conditions rel'ative to plant growth 14 

Vegetation, native, determining factors in the Great Plains region 9 

215 



INDEX. 43 

Page. 

Water, factors affecting quantity used by plants 14-15, 16, 17-19, 26 

irrigation, in the semiarid region 17-18 

needs for plant growth in the semiarid region 26 

Wlieat, durum, cultivation in the semiarid region 23, 32, 33 

Kharkof , cultivation in the semiarid region 32 

macaroni. See Wheat, durum. 

spring, cultivation in the semiarid region. 31, 32 

Turkey Red, cultivation in the semiarid region 23, 32 

winter, cultivation in the semiarid region 23, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37 

Wind, effect on agriculture in the semiarid region 15-16 

Windbreaks, uses in the semiarid region 38 

Wisconsin, moisture conditions relati^"e to plant growth 14 

215 

o 



IHJe '13 



